This is the view from London Bridge that I remember.
And it was a scene I thought was lost forever, leaving me just a memory of that forest of cranes, and ships that had crossed the oceans to unload goods as varied as fruit, ball bearings and much more.
Now I know there are heaps of pictures of the Thames when it was a busy industrial waterway, but not this view, which was one I saw, as I walked over London Bridge in the late 1950s and 60s.
I regularly travelled up from Peckham and later Well Hall on the train, alighting at London Bridge Railway Station, and by degree making my way over the river, down those stairs at the northern end of the bridge and then along Lower Thames Street, past Billingsgate Market to the Tower of London.
It was a Saturday trip I did quite frequently, almost always on my own, with the aim of submerging myself in the history of this bit of London.
The Tower was always the object of the trip, but there was always so much to see, and in the case of the old Peak Freens factory to smell as well.
And to this day, the equally powerful smell of the fish market bounces back from my memory and reminds me of the image of bits of abandoned ice and fish bits which lay in the gutter before they were cleared away.
On the odd occasion I get home, and equally rarer moment that I retrace my steps over the river at London Bridge, that old scene of the warehouses, ships and cranes is difficult to recreate.
So, I was pleased that John King shared his picture of the Thames from the bridge which he took in 1968, and its companion taken over 40 years later.
Together they encapsulate the changes which have taken place along the river.
And here I am the first to say I don’t do nostalgia. The Thames could be a cruel place, and those who made their livelihood along it, did back breaking and dangerous work, often for a pittance, while life in the terraced houses and tenements behind the warehouses could be a constant struggle to make a home clean, and safe in buildings which were long past their sell by date.
But given all of that, I miss that view, east over the water to Tower Bridge and the docks.
Location; London
Pictures; the River Thames, 1968 and 2011, from the collection of John King
Now I know there are heaps of pictures of the Thames when it was a busy industrial waterway, but not this view, which was one I saw, as I walked over London Bridge in the late 1950s and 60s.
I regularly travelled up from Peckham and later Well Hall on the train, alighting at London Bridge Railway Station, and by degree making my way over the river, down those stairs at the northern end of the bridge and then along Lower Thames Street, past Billingsgate Market to the Tower of London.
It was a Saturday trip I did quite frequently, almost always on my own, with the aim of submerging myself in the history of this bit of London.
The Tower was always the object of the trip, but there was always so much to see, and in the case of the old Peak Freens factory to smell as well.
On the odd occasion I get home, and equally rarer moment that I retrace my steps over the river at London Bridge, that old scene of the warehouses, ships and cranes is difficult to recreate.
So, I was pleased that John King shared his picture of the Thames from the bridge which he took in 1968, and its companion taken over 40 years later.
Together they encapsulate the changes which have taken place along the river.
And here I am the first to say I don’t do nostalgia. The Thames could be a cruel place, and those who made their livelihood along it, did back breaking and dangerous work, often for a pittance, while life in the terraced houses and tenements behind the warehouses could be a constant struggle to make a home clean, and safe in buildings which were long past their sell by date.
But given all of that, I miss that view, east over the water to Tower Bridge and the docks.
Location; London
Pictures; the River Thames, 1968 and 2011, from the collection of John King
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